U.va. Basketball Foundation Shaken By Recent Distractions

June 25, 1989|By DAVE FAIRBANK Staff Writer

Ten weeks ago, the Virginia basketball program appeared on as solid a foundation as any in the nation.

The Cavaliers would return almost everyone from a team that had finished an unexpected second in the Atlantic Coast Conference and had advanced to the NCAA's final eight. Criticized for past recruiting failures, the program received commitments from prospects who could contribute immediately; if anything, the question Virginia faced was: How will you keep so many players happy? And by all accounts, Terry Holland, the most successful coach in the school's history, was close to signing a new contract that likely would have kept him at Virginia for the rest of his professional life.

Since then, assistant coach Dave Odom, Holland's close friend and right-hand man, left to become head coach at Wake Forest; center Brent Dabbs left school and it was revealed that academic and athletic pressures forced him to be treated for depression all season; and Holland himself decided to leave Virginia after next basketball season to become athletic director at his alma mater, Davidson College.

Odom will be replaced ably by Craig Littlepage, a former head coach who returned before last season as a graduate assistant. Dabbs would be missed, but his loss did no irreparable damage.

Holland's departure, and especially the circumstances surrounding a lame-duck coach, could be devastating.

"Just when things were starting to settle down," Virginia assistant Tom Perrin said. "Everything seemed to be in order. We always seem to have some distraction."

Virginia can't exactly be called Team Turmoil. But for a program with national visibility and whose standards are viewed universally as beyond reproach, the Cavaliers have had more than their share of distractions in recent years.

This past season, Holland had intestinal surgery and missed almost a month in January. The Cavaliers had to rally around Odom, the interim head coach. The team also had to endure the academic dismissal of center-forward Bill Batts following the first semester.

Before the 1987-88 season, Holland suspended senior Mel Kennedy for failure to maintain acceptable academic standards. Senior point guard John Johnson was dismissed from the team for failing a drug test with a half-dozen games left, the crowning blow in a dismal 13-18 season.

At the end of the 1985-86 season, before Virginia's first-round NCAA tournament loss to DePaul, center Olden Polynice punched reserve John Dyslin in practice and broke his nose.

Instead of suspending one or both players for the DePaul game, Holland announced that both would be suspended at the beginning of the next season - a decision for which he and the athletic department received a lot of flak.

That spring, Polynice was caught shoplifting and left school a year early to enter the NBA.

Dyslin was suspended for just one game: against Temple in the preseason NIT the following season.

Holland missed four games in January of '85 with an intestinal problem caused by abdominal surgery he underwent the previous May - the precursor to the surgery necessary last January.

Holland's announcement Friday and impending departure provide a built-in distraction before anyone even thinks about next season.

"Situations like this can break you apart or bring you together," junior point guard John Crotty said. "In the past, it's brought us together. Hopefully, we can do it again."

The greatest distraction comes in the area of recruiting - the lifeblood of any program.

"I imagine recruiting is going to be hard," said forward Matt Blundin, also a backup quarterback on the football team. "I remember being recruited by Penn State for football, and Joe Paterno said he was going to be there another four or five years. That was important to me."

Holland said flatly: "This won't be a help for recruiting. Depending on the timetable for hiring a new coach, it's conceivable they'd be able to move quickly and have someone in mind, at least.

"The caliber of candidates should keep prospects interested, and hopefully those names will be known," Holland said.

But Virginia Athletic Director Jim Copeland insisted that the search will not be public.

"It's a tough situation to be in," Crotty said. "The thing high school seniors will have to look at is this is a first-class program and that someone very capable will be coming in."

Holland admits that he doesn't think the Cavaliers will receive any commitments during the fall signing period. Copeland said Friday that he expects the search process for a new coach to extend well into next basketball season.

"I realized this puts them in a difficult position," Holland said. "I'm certainly not interested in creating a hardship for anyone. I'm not one to pretend this is perfect."